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EnetEnglish.gr, 15:03 Monday 20 January 2014

Fugitive November 17 gunman vows armed action

Christodoulos Xiros, 55, who was serving six consecutive life sentences plus an additional 25 years for his involvement in six murders, bombings and robberies, issues statement from the underground

The photograph of Christodoulos Xiros that accompanied the statement (Photo: Athens Indymedia)
A convicted member of the November 17 Revolutionary Organisation urban guerrilla group who escaped while on prison leave earlier this month has published a statement from the underground vowing to wage an armed campaign against those he claims are destroying Greece.

"I have taken the decision once more to blast my guerrilla rifle against those who steal our lives and our dreams to make a profit," Xiros says. "We want our rights and will win with a gun in our hand."

He vowed never to be taken alive but "will fight to the bitter end".

The statement, published on the Athens Indymedia website and dated January 14, is accompanied by a video and photograph of Xiros, against a brackdrop containing the images of Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara, Greek war of independence fighters Georgios Karaiskakis and Theodoros Kolokotronis, and Greek second world war resistance leader Aris Velouchiotis.

In the statement, Xiros claims that "Democracy is long since dead and the abortion that remains is so blatantly fascist that it has the arms of the swastika sticking from it."

"We will not be fooled any more. Nothing will save you, nor the Dachau that you are planning, nor armies of mercenaries. Whatever you do, very soon the river of rage will swell and will drown you!" he continues, in comments directed at the "scum" that he says are destroying the "people".

Quoting a verse from the song "Karaiskakis" by Vasilis Papakonstantinou, Xiros adds: "When I return, I'll fuck you."

Xiros, who was serving six consecutive life sentences plus an additional 25 years for his involvement in six murders, bombings and robberies, was given licence to leave Korydallos prison in Piraeus on New Year's day and was due to return to jail on January 7.

"I could not rest on the laurels of my previous action and repeat the slogan 'someone should finally do something'. I did not.

"My choice to violate my licence has destroyed first of my own 'path'. But what perspective can one have when he sees society collapse, the country being destroyed and the people being led into enslavement?

"How long do we have to wait to see people in 2014 remaining indifferent to people dying from braziers? I won't!"

Meanwhile, it has emerged that Xeros, spent New Year’s Eve in Korydallos prison in the company of members of the Fire Cells Conspiracy (SFP), according to documents seen by Kathimerini.

Prison records show that Xiros was granted access to spend time with the group’s members regularly in the days preceding his disappearance.

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